Maize had made it back to Octo Valley after his visit to Mollusk Metropolis. He just wished it could have been under a lighter circumstance, but he was glad to have learnt of the city's existence and made some agents able to help within Mollusk Metropolis, but he thought it would be best to not inform Captain Cuttlefish of this to avoid a lengthy explanation.
"Cap'n! I'm back!" Maize called out, approaching the old squid's usual spot, but there was no one here beyond the snow globe that was holding DJ Octavio within it. He picked up his splatterscope and tossed it onto his back alongside the octoling charger he had.
"Hey, y'know where the cap'n went?" Maize asked. No response, just a very angry glare. He chuckled lightly, reaching down for the small blanket on the floor and tossing it back on top of the snow globe of a prison. He heard the furious tapping of the glass once more.
"Guess I'll go home," Maize shrugged. The captain was gone and it was nearing three in the morning now. He took the goggles off his face and pulled his glasses out of his pocket, fixing them on his face. He threw the helmet away, letting his tentacles free once more. He had to wear the other clothing that he had taken from those octolings earlier that night, but he doubted anyone would notice that it was octarian clothing. The young inkling began to make his way out of Octo Valley, having to climb back out through the pipe in his squid form to get to the main plaza.
"…whoa," Maize saw a few other workers assembling a couple of stages together with the use of those trucks he stepped up. This meant that Splatfest was going to happen tomorrow night. He was glad to see all the inklings up at this hour, and they sure seemed to be excited over it.
"Maize! Hey, I didn't expect to see you at this hour," he heard, looking up at the upper platform of the stage. It was Mauve, the construction manager. He was surprised to see the purple inkling as well. He jumped down from the stage, landing in front of Agent 3.
"Mauve? What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be working at Hammerhead Bridge?" Maize asked, confused. Construction was construction, but it was odd to see the much more scaled down task at hand.
"Oh! Well I got fired, you see! Part of the bridge collapsed because I was at home sleeping in when it was my turn to be watching over the project, now Hammerhead Bridge is condemned to be only a turf war area for another three months!" Mauve explained. Maize somehow was not surprised by this. Once again the Cursed Bridge had struck again and now was delayed from being completed once more. He knew the Squid Sisters were not going to be happy once they heard about this; the dream of a faster commute to work, once again shattered.
"Err… sorry about that," Maize gave his condolences for the purple inkling losing his job. The construction worker shrugged, uncaring for it.
"Don't be. I'm glad to be away from that stupid bridge. How'd it go with that squishie, by the way?" Mauve replied, wondering if Agent 3 and his friends had been able to help the newborn inkling that had been found in his backyard.
"It went great! He's got a really good mom now," Maize stated with a smile. The two squids continued walking, just conversing while Maize made for the bus stop. They both were a little tired from the long night. They kept talking at the bus stop, but Mauve appeared to have something on his mind.
"Uh by the way… Maize we got a problem. It's a secret and only those involved with the making of Splatfest know," the purple inkling started.
"Is this good secret or bad one?" Maize rubbed his own head.
"The main backers for Splatfest, me and the other construction workers, and I'm sure anyone who has a hand in this got a threatening message," Mauve claimed. There was a threat filed to everyone remotely related to this Splatfest. Maize did not like the sound of this. That meant Callie and Marie had definitely received the same threat. The purple squid presented his cellphone which had a brightly colored case around it.
"If this Splatfest goes on as planned, then it shall go horribly wrong. You and every associate involved have until 5pm to comply, or we shall make sure you all regret making this Splatfest," Maize looked over and read the message, not able to believe it. The look on his face alone described his fury. He was not able to just sit idly by knowing this, especially now that they were on a time limit.
"You think it's a joke?" Mauve asked, though noticed the two chargers on Maize's back. No one ever dual wielded chargers for a reason of lacking accuracy. Maize looked down the dark street, seeing the bus beginning to pull up with a jellyfish driving it.
"Where to?" the driver asked.
"Flounder Heights," Maize told him as he stepped on board. He looked to the construction worker.
"I don't think some squid would waste all their time on a prank like this. Keep working, though. These Splatfests are really important," Maize requested, gaining a salute from Mauve. He was happy to continue working and building to prepare for the Splatfest. At the rate the construction team was going, they would be ready by dawn. The yellow inkling swiped his coin card before taking a seat on the bus, trying to rest and enjoy the ride. He had to talk to Agents 1 and 2, aware that they weren't going to be happy with him visiting at this hour.
At the Squid Sisters apartment, things were normal. Callie and Marie were asleep in their bed. The two shared a room and did it quite well. Half the room had a more erratically brighter pink design to it while the other half had a more calming tone in shades of green. The Squid Sisters were sharing a queen-sized bed. The two were peacefully asleep, until Marie began hearing a familiar crying that woke her up.
"That's the second time tonight…" Marie grumbled, looking at the clock on the nightstand that read a little past four in the morning. She was wearing green polka dotted pyjamas. Her tentacles were untied and running down her back, yet were nowhere near as long as Callie's were.
"Hey, Bondi is up again," Marie tried to inform her slumbering cousin who already started waking up. She rubbed her head sorely, wearing pink pyjamas that had white stripes going from shoulder to shoulder.
"At least he sleeps through most of the night," Callie tried to look at this positively. Most squishies did not sleep longer than a few hours each night. Only two wakeups was a good start for one of the first nights. The squishie was living with his new adoptive mother, Agent 1, and so far she had been doing her best with the help of her cousin.
"Now if only optimism gave me my energy back," Marie joked, her head hitting the pillow. Her cousin got up out of bed and headed out of the room, her tentacles dragging on the floor behind her. The crying was still going on. Walking through the hallway, she went to the room neighbouring their own, turning on the small lamp that was by the dresser. The room used to be a storage room that the Squid Sisters had labelled the fresh room. In retrospective they could have just titled their walk in closet for the same effect. Now this room was a regular nursery.
"What's the matter Bondi?" Callie hummed, seeing the upset squishie lying in his crib, tears still in his eyes. She picked up the blue squishie, cradling him into her arms. The crying became toned down into a whimpering and sniffling. Feeling his adoptive mother's touch soothed him a lot.
"Was it a bad dream? Don't worry. Me, Uncle Maize and your auntie Marie will never let anything bad happen to you," Callie spoke to the squishie in her joyful tone. The crying began to come to an end. Bondi was calming down. The Squid Sister felt a lot of pride ever since she had agreed to be his mother. Adopted or not, she had grown quite attached to the squishie. It all felt so natural.
"Hm?" Callie quirked, hearing the sound of knocking at the front door and her cousin's frustrated groan in being prevented from sleeping. Callie stepped back out to the living room, carrying Bondi. Marie was already nearing the front door. Judd was still asleep on the couch. He was certainly a deep sleeper.
"Looks like someone finally got our messages," Marie said while looking through the peephole. Maize was standing outside their door. The white squid opened the door, letting their dear friend step inside.
"Hi, Callie. Hey, Marie. Oh, and hi, Bondi," Maize greeted them all, glad the Squid Sisters were already awake. He still had to get used to seeing Callie as a mother now, even if it had not even been a week yet. She seemed to be doing a great job so far.
"Yeah, Maize. You sure know the worst good timing," Marie greeted the blonde inkling. He really had no idea how to interpret that, brushing that comment aside. He had expected the captain to be here, but surprisingly he was not.
"I found out what was going on with the Splatfest. Sorry for ignoring your calls. I had a mission," Maize apologized, presuming that they had been trying to get in contact with him to try and inform him of the incident way sooner. He felt guilty about having to ignore these messages.
"It's fine. I'm sure we're worrying over nothing," Callie smiled, having thought that the worst thing this so-called threat would turn out to be is just some inklings using their weapons at the Splatfest. Her main care was more with Bondi than anything.
"And I'm sure we're not. No squid would specifically find our numbers to text us a scary message, as well as the company sponsors," Marie argued. She was more angered by this than she let on, mainly because the two cousins were threatened when they had to sing all the way through Splatfest as entertainment. These Splatfests were major tourist attractions and tended to increase turf wars by a huge amount. It was hard to imagine any squid that could hate the fun of spraying ink everywhere, let alone hating Splatfest itself.
"Joke or not, it's seriously causing problems. We need to figure out who did this and hopefully before the Splatfest begins," Maize refocused the matter, not wanting them to argue. Bondi was beginning to fall back asleep in his adoptive mother's arms. The Squid Sisters noticed the extra charger their close friend had next to his splatterscope.
"Where did you get that?" Marie asked. Maize looked at the octoling charger and that shine sprite shirt he had. She never had seen that before. He did not want to inform them of his little trip to Mollusk Metropolis, not sure how they would react. He didn't want them to learn he had made an octoling and a robot Agents 4 and 5 unofficially.
"It's a long story, but let's just say never make bets on scuttlecrab races," the yellow squid nervously answered with the first lie in mind. His friends looked to one another, hoping that he had not gotten some form of gambling habit when he already was near broke to begin with.
"Anyway! We need a plan," Maize spoke, but then looked slightly embarrassed.
"Do… either of you have one?" he added, having no ideas in mind. This was a situation that he would prefer not to rely on his luck to help with. Callie was rubbing her son's head while he began to fall back asleep.
"We already contacted Tentatek Manufactory. They're trying to trace the source of the message. We're supposed to meet them tomorrow to hear the results," Marie claimed. She and Callie had already taken steps toward trying to solve this mission that had been forced upon them. Maize seemed to react oddly to the mention of the company, quickly regaining his composure.
"You have no idea how good it is to hear we're off to a good start for once," Maize chuckled. He had been so used to having the odds stacked against him all the time on each mission that it was too ridiculous.
"Having connections makes things easier," Callie claimed, heading back to the nursery to put her squishie back in his crib to let him enjoy what was left of the night.
"You mind if I crash on the couch? I guess I got too eager and came here early," Maize apologized. Marie sighed, rolling her eyes.
"I'll set it up for you," she nodded, not having any objections to letting her good friend take a place on the couch. The three had to work together and help each other out as much as possible to handle these missions with ease. Maize still was waiting for the 'with ease' part to happen. He smiled, going to help Marie get the spare blankets and pillows. Maize hoped things would work out. Whoever was out to ruin this Splatfest, either hated the Cars vs Planes theme, or was just a lunatic against Splatfest in general.